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The Reason Uranus Has A Blue Glow
By GEORGINA TORBET
Rotating on its side, Uranus is made up mostly of icy materials and has a gaseous atmosphere, rings, and 27 known moons. Arguably, the planet’s most striking feature is its delicate blue color, which was captured beautifully in a famous image of the planet taken by Voyager 2 when the spacecraft was 5.7 million miles from the planet.
The lovely blue color is because of its atmospheric components, specifically methane. When the light from the sun, which is made up of all the colors in the spectrum, hits the planet, the methane absorbs some of the redder colors, and the blue wavelengths are reflected off, thereby making the planet appear blue.
Of course, Uranus only looks blue to human eyes, and when the planet is perceived at different wavelengths, it can look very different. The image to the left is Uranus as humans would perceive it, and on the right is what is called a false-color image, where colors are used to identify features that aren't visible to human eyes.